13 train, drawing his cannon down in great haste; he ordered the officer to stop and go back ; he replied, he had no cartridges; the general dismounted, and examined his boxes, and found a considerable number of cartridges, upon which he ordered him back; he refused until the general threatened him with immediate death ; upon which he returned up the hill again, but soon deserted his post, and left the cannon.” Now, this is the strongest case imaginable, not of disobedience, but compulsory obedience. Callender obeyed Putnam to the letter, as the committee say; he deserted his post afterwards. And we ask the author whether this conduct of Putnam was that of a volunteer. But allow the author to make his own case regardless of facts. * Suppose Callender disobeyed Putnam, and that it was for this he was condemned, instead of cowardice only, as he was, this imaginary case would be worse than the real one for the author and his argument; it would give us the sentence of the court-martial to prove that Putnam was his commander. As if purposely to declare he did not think any thing relative to Putnam deserving of ordinary care or attention, he says, “ This report states Callender was riding down the hill,” when there is not a syllable of the kind. The author has racked his fancy to discover other objections to Putnam’s having the command, that are as groundless as the foregoing. He objects, that, if Putnam had been the commander, he would have boasted of it in his letter to the town of Cambridge, in which he claims the merit of having saved that place from the incursion,of the enemy, after the battle, by erecting fortifications on Prospect Hill. In the first place, the argument proves too much : it would prove that he was not the commander in the battle at Chelsea; for he does not mention that in his letter; and he had more reason to • The author’s declaration, that Callender was tried for disobedience, 27th June, seems to be a poetic license. Ward orders the court-martial at that time, without the slightest intimation of such a charge. Fearing our readers’ incredulity, we have omitted hitherto another of our author’s mistakes : he sometimes, like St. Patrick, carries liis head under his arm, instead of wearing it on his shoulders.
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